Chapter 17: Rarity's Reverie
Rarity had long since given up on the argument with Rainbow Dash, which had never been more than a form of verbal play anyway. She felt tired. She'd made Fluttershy feel better, she'd made Rainbow Dash feel better, and she just wished somepony would make her feel better, because she knew she might be facing a major test of her talent.
Ponies did not always understand her talent. Even her friends sometimes failed to comprehend how she operated.
Rainbow Dash, for instance, only appreciated Rarity's admittedly-considerable athletic aptitude, and the killer instinct that made her a capable hoof-to-hoof fighter. She didn't grasp that leaping and fighting was not who Rarity was, that it was just an emergency skill she had learned to keep herself alive long enough in a dangerous situation to give herself the time to express herself, to use her real talent. Twilight Sparkle was impressed by her gem-finding, her dextrous telekinesis and her negotiating aptitude. Everypony knew that she was a very skilled dressmaker and fashion designer.
Rarity's real talent was to sense patterns and then to work with them: creation, assembling, joining, putting parts together to make a more beautiful and valuable whole. It mattered little whether these were the parts of a conversation, the parts of a dress, the parts of a business venture, or the parts (she had begun to dream) of a political empire. There were parts; by themselves they were incomplete and limited; possessing surpluses of some qualities and shortages of others. One put them together to balance the surpluses and shortages, each part supplying what the others lacked, until by combination the value of the whole became greater than the sum of its parts. It was a little like the concept of "comparative advantage" in trade she had learned at her secondary school in Fillydelphia, but much more extensive and all-embracing.
A bit over four years ago, she had helped Fluttershy surmount an unfortunate experience from her youth, and Fluttershy had introduced her to the idea of "game theory." Curious about the concept, and suspecting that it had business applications, Rarity located some books on the subject through Twilight Sparkle, and read them. One of the books she had, Non-Zero: The Logic of Equine Destiny, expressed the implications of the concept on equine action quite beautifully.
There were many possible interactions between Ponies. Some of them, like having a hoof-fight, were negative-sum -- in the end the winner was the one least injured, with the sum value of the participants reduced. Some, like playing a chess game, were zero-sum -- each player's gain was the other's loss. And the most important ones, like trading in the marketplace, were positive-sum -- if done right, both participants profited: the farmer sold her surplus apples and the dressmaker sold her a surplus dress, and now the farmer had both food and clothing and so did the dressmaker. Civilization progressed by playing larger and larger positive-sum games.
Another way of expressing the social aspects of Rarity's talent was that she was very good at playing positive-sum games. She knew when and how to give in order to receive. Put in philosophical terms, it was the essence of the Element of Generosity.
She looked around her and she saw a world of wasted potential; of deals which could be made which would make everypony happier. She had a sense for this; almost like her secondary talent of gem-dowsing. She suspected the two were linked, and meant someday to have a long discussion with Twilight Sparkle on it.
It was her destiny to make those deals, to build a great structure of Fabulosity that would enrich the whole world. Fashion design was only part of it, an avenue born of her great love of fashion and fashionable society. She was beginning to see how someday it might become so much more -- a great economic engine of productivity that would extend across nations and continents and bring wealth and culture to all Ponykind.
This was her greatest dream, though she feared ridicule too much to express it openly. After all, right now she was just a dress-maker, who was beginning to elevate herself to the rank of a minor high fashion designer. If she came right out and told everypony, they would just laugh at her -- who was she to aim so high? To dream of a global economic empire, and one which would do good for all the world? She was not even a noblemare, let alone the Princess of the Material World. She was just Rarity Belle, who was constructing her own identity one design at a time.
There was only one being to whom she had expressed a little of her dream. The one being who knew all her secrets, even the worst of them, who should have despised her for her past sins but instead continued to worship her as if she were a goddess. The one who had brought her back, more than once, from the brink of madness. The one she trusted more than any other being in the world.
That being was, of course, Spike the Dragon.
Looking back on her life she could not pinpoint the exact moment at which she realized that her best friend was now a small purple Dragon. Spike had contracted a crush on her at first sight, but that sort of thing was a fairly normal component of Rarity's life. Stallions -- and sometimes colts, or even mares -- would declare themselves hopelessly-smitten and follow her around, sighing after her.
This was flattering, the first dozen or two dozen times it happened, but ultimately rather annoying. It was not as if any of these self-proclaimed suitors actually understood the first thing about her, aside from her carefully-constructed beautiful facade. Usually, she either ignored them, or got them to do things for her until they tired of this and left her alone. She generally pointed them at some better outlet for their energies, so that they left with no hard feelings. Hurting other ponies, and making enemies in the process, formed no part of her way of life.
She had first tried to deal with Spike the same way. She had let him hang around her in return for helping her do her work. What she had not considered was that this was essentially the relationship he already had with Twilight Sparkle, his surrogate big sister and the Pony he loved most in the world. So Spike had absolutely no problem with being treated by her as her assistant. In fact, he rather liked it.
By that point she was discovering that she rather liked Spike's company. He did what he was told, even if he complained -- he was one of the very few beings Rarity had ever met with a work ethic rivaling her own. He listened to her long monologues about her business. To her surprise, after a while he started making comments that proved that he'd understood most of what she had said. And she found that, at last, she had someone with whom she could share her skills, her plans, her hopes and dreams ...
Was that when she was hopelessly lost? The strange thing about it was that Spike was constantly, obsessively, transparently trying to win her love, and he was trying to do this with somepony who had a background of an unpleasant romantic experience, a distinct lack of trust regarding male intentions, and very high marital standards which required being rich, of superior social status, and preferably her senior. And a Pony stallion. Definitely a Pony stallion.
Qualities none of which Spike the Dragon possessed.
Which made his suit hopeless. And Spike harmless, because he had the code of honor of an especially idealistic gentlecolt. He'd never hurt her. And he was adorable. He was so very nice to her. He made her feel so good about herself, made her feel as if she could accomplish anything.
She started to fall into the habit of inviting him over whenever she had major jobs. She'd serve him some tea and cakes, talk to him, and they'd work together. He was the least demanding and most useful assistant she'd ever known. She started to feel actually guilty about taking advantage of him this way, but he seemed unhappy when she suggested he stop helping her.
His conversation, the nice things he said, the intelligent comments and suggestions he made, started to become at least as important to her as his actual assistance. She found herself looking forward to the time she spent with him. He was no longer just Twilight Sparkle's strange assistant or an oddly-affable stalker. He'd become her close friend.
She should have known that was dangerous. But she'd never had a close male friend before, not since she'd thought Rush Rocks had been her friend, and had proven to be in truth so very much the opposite. Before Rush, she'd been a -- mostly -- innocent little filly; after him, a bitterly-distrustful young mare with little time for any stallion who did not match her long-term plans.
And Spike's very harmlessness disarmed her, let him right through all the defenses she'd built around her to keep out a second Rush Rocks. All her sentries simply smiled at him and waved him on through the gates, into her emotional fortress. By the time she'd understood what was happening, it was too late: Spike meant too much to her for her to give up his friendship. There were the memories of the happiness he'd brought her in the past, his uncomplaining efforts on her behalf, the anticipation of pleasure from his presence in her future.
His suit was still hopeless, of course. In the scant time she had available between her business and the needs of her friends or the demands of the Realm she sought out and stepped out with stallions, often "dating" them in the more modern fashion common to the cities. As her social circle widened, she felt certain that she could find a stallion she liked, one who liked her back, and who was worthy of her own increasing status. Which meant, of course, one of superior status to her own.
More than half of them, coming as they did from high-status families, imagined that they had found a mare willing to hop into their beds. Those soon found out the falsity of their suppositions, and quickly ceased to play any role at all in her social life. The others were nice enough stallions of one sort or another, but none of them understood her, grasped her goals or her methods. Some of these latter she liked well enough as Ponies, dated more than once, even permitted some liberties short of the ultimate -- but she could not imagine marrying any of them. A few of them wound up as long-term friends, for Rarity was not usually cruel to anypony who had not outright offended her.
Twice she humiliated herself in public, both times in social settings which meant very much to her. The first time this was before Canterlot High Society at the Grand Galloping Gala, though the fact that she humiliated Prince Blueblood more was an anodyne to her embarrassment. The second time it was before her own friends, and involved the sad discovery that not even a Pony much like herself -- Trenderhoof was also a smart, socially-skilled climber, one who might have made a good partner in her rise -- was necessarily compatible.
Once, she had met a fit mate -- an older Pony stallion of higher status who was attractive, brilliant, kind, and was both attracted to her as well and treated her with the utmost respect. He fully-understood her dream and had developed his own version of it before he'd ever met her. He was also very happily married. Rarity seriously considered trying to become his mistress, but was checked by her own sense of honor, his sense of honor, and the fact that she also liked his wife. Fancy Pants and Fleur-de-Lis became her friends, her mentors and her social sponsors. But Rarity remained both single and frustrated.
And, as one after another actual stallion had disappointed her in one way or another, she always wound up seeking solace in the company of her dearest friend Spike, who could not help having been born too late and as a member of the wrong species. She loved so much about him: his kindness, his intellect, his helpfulness. He listened to her concerns; he not only sympathized with her problems but was willing to aid in their solutions. Most of all, he made her feel good about herself, on the frequent occasions when she was tormented by doubt.
She came to love his looks -- those attentive slitted archosaur eyes, the quick birdlike way he turned his head, the way the light played on his lovely purple and green and yellow iridescent scales, as if he were clothed in a million tiny gemstones. That clothing was a coat of mail, proof against all but heavy Pony-portable weapons, and yet it was flexible and smooth, warm to the touch, like nothing else she had ever felt before.
She loved his voice -- it was so expressive of his emotions, carrying the essence of his own sweet soul. It had begun as the piping of a little colt, an expression of innocence. As the years had passed it was becoming deeper, firmer, imbued with his own growing maturity and determination. It meant comfort and companionship -- the sound of it wrapped and pervaded and filled her with its owner's own sweet self.
Surprisingly, she had even come to love his smell -- that which she had once perceived as a brimstone stench, combined with the threatening scent of a predator. She had come to know his scent well, over the long hours they had labored together, the days they had spent in conversation. The scent was fundamentally sulfurous, but overlain with all sorts of complex tones like nameless spices, a melange whose whiff warmed her, for it meant Spike's here. Everything's right and safe with my world.
Even when Spike was gone, she could still smell his scent -- in her rooms, on the tools he had touched, on her own hooves and body from when she petted or hugged him. His scent comforted her. The combination of their scents comforted her even more. And warmed her greatly. She had taken to adjusting her own perfumes to complement Spike's scent, and tried not to notice the odd looks she sometimes got from Lace Secret, who probably had a very good idea what she was doing.
Spike was starting to change. Though his stature had not greatly grown, his strength was growing, his voice deepening. He was fourteen years old now, and Rarity suspected that he was entering adolescence. Late, by Pony standards, but then he was a Dragon. He had much more control over the range and focus of his flame -- Twilight had told her that it was now hot enough to melt hard steel. At its maximum it could vaporize a mass of ice the size of a small hill; yet he could focus it delicately enough to light and send off a salvo of fireworks rockets. He had never really been a baby in the time she had known him; now, he was growing into what by Pony standards would have been a young stallion.
She noticed that his scent was changing, too. It was becoming deeper, more complex, tinged with something really fascinating. Something that made her feel really warm. Something that he emitted even more when she touched him.
She knew what this was. On her trips to Canterlot and Manehattan she sometimes researched Dragons -- she would have been horribly embarrassed to sound out Twilight Sparkle, or Fluttershy, or even Lace Secret, on this topic.
Dragonmusk. Which was said, in the books she'd read, to be a "mild aphrodisiac." The books didn't talk about when and why it was emitted, and she wasn't sure of all the possible reasons, but she could have told the authors one reason why Dragons emit it.
They emit it when they're sexually aroused.
The implications of that made her very glad she hadn't asked anypony she knew about this. Especially Twilight Sparkle.
Celestia, what is wrong with me? she wondered. He's not my species. He's too young. Not a baby, maybe not wholly a child, but still -- he's fourteen! He's Sweetie's age Her mouth twisted in revulsion at the monstrosity of her own nature.
I lost my virginity to Rush Rocks at thirteen, she remembered. I had my miscarriage when I was younger than Spike is now.
This excused nothing. In fact it made it worse. Spike was not Rush, would not have behaved like Rush, should not be punished for what Rush had done to her.
For far from the first time, she speculated about how she would have responded to Spike, had he been a young Pony stallion the age he was now, had she met him instead of Rush when she'd been twelve. Despite her self-condemnation for the way she was using Spike for companionship, the thought brought to her face the usual fond smile.
I'd have fallen for him, she thought. Completely. I probably would have given myself to him. He wouldn't have been as pushy as Rocks, but things would have happened. I was a randy little filly with very little common sense, though I thought myself quite sophisticated. And I might have wound up with foal, just as I did in real life.
And Spike would have stuck by me. He would have taken care of me, made sure I took it easy, ate properly, visited the doctor. He would have braved the wrath of my family, risked losing me, if he'd thought that my life or that of the foal was in any danger. As soon as it was possible, he would have married me, and taken care of our child, raised it in the warmth and safety of his love.
That's what Spike's like. That's who he is. Stallion or drake, it wouldn't have made a difference. That's who he is.
She was so very unworthy of his love. She'd first thought this when she realized his love for her was stronger than his own basic desires. As Spike grew, in both maturity and wisdom; as he learned all her secrets and kept right on loving her, she knew in her heart of hearts that -- fabulous as she was -- she was not fabulous enough to be worthy of a love that pure and strong, from a being as pure and strong as was Spike the Dragon.
Spike was a hero. She remembered the sick horror she'd felt when she'd thought he was about to die, leaping from the Crystal Palace with the Crystal Heart clutched tight in one claw, nearly being consumed by the spectral King Sombra. She was so happy that they'd built that statue to him. He deserved that respect, so very much. She knew he would get it, more and more, as other Ponies began to see the ways in which he was wonderful, something she had known since he had shown up in the cavern of the Diamond Dogs, uncaring of personal danger, concerned only with rescuing her.
When the Shadows had taken her -- when she'd been caught in her very own personal Nightmare of jealousy and hatred and loathing for everything sweet and wholesome in life -- it had been Spike who had saved her. Spike's adoration which had empowered that ruby into what amounted to a magical artifact, as if he'd discovered a new Element of Harmony. Spike who had fought his way through hordes of foes to stand by her side and drive off the Shadows with his love.
She was using him, using that bright shining soul, keeping him around her with half-promises she never meant to keep. She would break his heart when she finally did meet the socially-superior stallion who would become her business partner and sire her foals and -- the thought was disgusting her. The image of a smug, successful Rarity, happy with her match, trotting on uncaring what broken heart she left in her wake -- she could not find pride in that fantasy.
What price the adoration of the World, she thought, if one sacrifices one's self-respect to gain this trophy?
She was not a good Pony. She knew this, and this knowledge was her deepest and darkest secret, the only one she had never told Spike. Well, I've tried to tell Spike, she amended. He's just never believed me. He has faith in my fabulousness. The little fool. The dear little fool.
Dark thoughts. If she wasn't careful she would sink into one of her black depressions, the ones she'd had ever since fourteen.
She couldn't afford to do so. They might be going into danger. Fluttershy might need her. Twilight Sparkle might need her.
Spike might need her.
There, she thought. I've managed to convince myself to do exactly what I always wanted to do, by the usual twisty path. Might as well do it, while I still have myself conned.
"Spike?" she asked softly.
He had been at the other end of the room, talking to Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash, but he looked up at her utterance. His eyes lit up with happiness as she smiled at him. He trotted over to her.
"Did you want something, Rarity?" he asked her.
"Just some company," she replied. "I'm a little bit -- worried -- about what might happen. I could use a friend."
"No need to worry, Rarity!" Spike said, drawing himself up into what he thought was an impressive pose, and Rarity laughed just a little bit, both because it was such a parody of such a pose and because of the deep irony that the reality of Spike was so very much more impressive than might ever be any such pose.
Spike looked miffed for a moment but then he saw the acceptance and happiness in Rarity's eyes, and he laughed himself. "I know I'm not the biggest Dragon in the world, but I'll protect you, Rarity. Even if he scares me sometimes -- I'll still protect you. I won't let you come to harm."
And this was so obviously something beyond his power, yet she knew that he would try his best to protect her, that he would scheme or fight or even die for her, uncomplaining, and the thought that someone loved her so very much warmed her heart, made her feel safe even though she had no objective reason for such a sentiment, that she half-closed her eyes and gave him the warmest and most loving look she could. "Thank you, Spike," she said. "You really are my hero."
Rarity lifted her right foreleg just a bit, a very little bit from the floor, and Spike came eagerly forward to accept her embrace. She stroked the scales along his back, right beside the spikes where she knew he liked to be touched, and he made a happy little half-growl and sank his head against her breast, nuzzling into her marshmallow hair, his claws gently clutching her. She closed her eyes and rubbed her cheek against his, feeling the flexible warmth of his scales, smelling the sulfur and compex spices that meant Spike, all her trepidations lost in the knowledge that she was safe in Spike's embrace, that he would protect her from any wounds, and would never wound her himself.
She moved back onto the couch behind her, lay slightly on her side. This broke the embrace, and Spike looked at her questioningly. She answered him with a smile, moving to give him room at her forequarters.
Spike hopped up onto the couch and lay against her, in much the same position as before, but one which they could now both maintain comfortably for a while. She didn't know how much longer Luna was going to be with Twilight, she didn't know how much longer she would still be alive and sane, still be Rarity Belle who was fabulous and loved fashion and gems and her dear friend Spike, instead of being some lunatic who loved a boulder or a tree or suffered whatever other change Discord chose to inflict upon her this time, and she wanted to spend these possibly last moments as Rarity with Spike.
Spike, her dearest friend, her almost-lover, her soulmate, whom a mocking Fate had chosen to let her meet but make a Dragon eight years her junior. What she really wanted to do with him was monstrous and exploitative and indecent, especially considering that there was absolutely no opportunity for privacy, or at least unremarked privacy, with him within the Golden Oaks Library which was occupied by her other dear friends.
Later, if there was a later, the real world would return and then she would have to also consider her career, her life strategy, the demands of society, and the thought of stealing off somewhere with Spike would be the obvious folly that it was. But right now the only restraints upon her were her own decency and her respect for Spike. And those restraints were just enough that she was not going to seduce him, take his virginity, make him her lover in truth rather than mere fantasy.
But she'd be damned to Tartarus if she wasn't going to hold him. Especially when this might be the last time she'd ever get to do so.
So she did, ignoring any possibly-shocked looks from her friends, a feat which was made easier by the fact that her eyes were closed in bliss as she embraced Spike, holding him in her forelegs, letting him nuzzle into her neck while she slowly and gently stroked his head and back. She could smell his scent very strongly now, with the subtle but distinct tang of Dragonmusk rising now, a secret signal from him to herself telling her of his arousal, for she was the only mare in this room who knew how to read it. At the thought a warmth spread from her heart to her face and down her belly, and she wondered what secret signals she was giving to Spike, and if he yet had the knowledge to read them.
I love you, Spike, she thought but did not dare to say, not even in a whisper. Whatever happens, whomever it is wise to wed, I shall always love you.
"Spikey-wikey," she did say softly, and Spike's own clutch on her grew a bit tighter. She let him press the length of his body against her. She knew exactly what that would have meant were he a Pony, and judged the anatomy sufficiently similar, and did not care who censured her. His body was too short to reach very far down hers, in any case. She could feel his belly-scales, the slight bump of his pubic ridge. "Precious-scales."
"I will protect you," Spike vowed again.
"Shh -- I know, dear one," she whispered. "I know. My hero."
And they lay like this as the long minutes passed.
The world would return, and its cares and considerations, and then Rarity would once again have to conceal her feelings from everypony. Including herself. Though she knew the other Ponies in this room had probably seen through her long ago. Right now, however, she was wrapped up in a world which was big enough for only two.
She wanted to enjoy this world for as long as it lasted.
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5148788
I'm reorganizing the story, splitting "Waiting For the Princesses" into several intermediate chapters.
Wasn't this also posted in a previous chapter?
5148804
The only previously published part currently inaccessible to the readers now is "Pinkie, Dancing."
5148811
Yes. As my blog explains, it's a reorganized part of "Waiting for the Princesses."
5148823 Oh, okay. I didn't see that blog yet.
5148835
For my part, I'm sorry that I originally decided to do "Waiting for the Princesses as a single chapter. It works better interspersed with Luna's Tale, because that's really what's happening -- Luna is telling Twilight a very long story about her past, while the other mares are waiting in the next room.
On the plus side, "Rarity's Reverie" now stands isolated as utterly gooey Sparity shipping. Or is that the minus side? I've never been good at that fancy math Big Mac knows.
5148881 That depends on the reader, I think. If you like Sparity, it would be good, but if you read just for the "adventure" then you'd be horribly disappointed.
5148887
Bulk Biceps has an (utterly unexpected) adventure. Luna and Dissy had an adventure 2500 years ago. Living inside Discord, every day is an adventure, which is why it's amazing any of them are remotely sane.
5148896 Who said they're sane?
What if the insanity is making them think they're sane, and we think we are sane because of the same insanity?
(Accidentally spent all of lunch discussing that with my Social Studies teacher
)
Rarity had long since given up on the argument with Rainbow Dash, which had never been more than a form of verbal play anyway.
What was the argument?
Nice deepness with Rarity.
Reminds me of that story where Rarity as a Nightmare put together a fully functional island nation . . . and then in the last paragraph had her turn out to be evil in an insane shocking swerve.
WAIT! Didn't we read this chapter BEFORE?!
5149031
5148938
I reorganized the story a bit, splitting the overlong and rather dragging "Waiting for the Princesses" into five parts (and I'm going to write a part for Discord) and interweaving it with Luna's Tale. I think this is going to flow more smoothly than my original structure.
I apologize: I'm not very experienced at writing to novel length.
So, Rarity has more to her than most see. I see a Pony POV Light World nod there? You know, you should really do a more detailed story about Rarity's past sometime. So sweet, I'd like more moments like the one between Rarity and Spike here!
5149068
Very much so. She's even in canon one of the more complex characters -- she has an outer layer of sweet gentility, surrounding a layer of tough cynical pragmatism, around a core of romantic idealism. You can clearly see an earlier version of this multi-layered personality in her filly self in "The Cutie Mark Chronicles" -- she hadn't yet perfected the outer facade, and of course in my fanon she hadn't yet met Rush Rocks.
I will ... though based on what I said about it here, and implied in A Robust Solution, be warned that it's a slightly dark story. Love spurned turns to hate, and Rush really should not have made an enemy of a brilliant social manipulator -- even when that manipulator was a cute young filly. Or maybe especially GIVEN that she was a cute young filly. Rarity came close to turning evil when she got her revenge on him; Ponyville and the love of her family healed her, before Twilight even met her.
So would Rarity and Spike!
Good stuff (Normally i'm not into spike/rarity but this is good work. It show great depth for rarity character) btw you know what probably adds to discord confusion, the latest comic. with Fluttershy expresses mild jealousy over Baast and Discord's relationship. i mean that is probably a mix signal right there (And a rather large one.)
Destruction: You gotta admit, it was kinda obvious Baast wasn't a 'friend.' so that pegasus jealousy was abit confusing.
5158118
I thought it was more of a matter of Baast being jealous of Fluttershy. Which is actually funny, as Fluttershy spent a lot of the comic getting carried around by Discord as if she was his My Little Pony plushie-toy.
But then Baast knew Discord well from the past, and probably saw the signs that Discord was actually concerned for Fluttershy's safety -- and what that implied.
I think Fluttershy returns Discord's affections.
It was also nice to see that the writers remembered that Discord and the CMC like each other. There's an earlier issue of the comics in which Discord plans to play mean tricks on the CMC and instead Discord and the CMC instead wind up playing with each other. Discord probably likes them as a wandering ball of chaos; they see him as a lot of fun and don't fully get that -- even reformed -- he's dangerous due to his irresponsibility.
5158118
I'm glad you liked my interpretation of Rarity. I find her a very complex character, and one of the things I remind myself about when I write her is that she has "strong passion, strongly restrained" (by her senses of social strategy and morality). She exaggerates these passions for the purposes of outward display, but she really does feel them, and this makes her a very dramatic and interesting POV.
What you say on both Baast and Fluttershy are quite true in my opinion. and the continuity nod with the cmc was a nice touch.
Indeed.
5397400
I'm glad you find it interesting.
Discord is a super-powerful jerk. He's often a likeable jerk, but he's still a jerk, and he's here being confronted with a situation that shows a stark contrast between the behavior expected of an Equestrian ally and the behavior expected of an irresponsible global despot.
To his discredit, he doesn't grasp what a jerk he's being. To his credit, he doesn't actually hurt anypony in this confrontation, though he could have done so. He's just sane enough to realize that this would be a bad idea, even before he talks to Wind Whistler.
5397469
Heh, this is also how I sometimes get over books ... including, at times, ones on specialized fields of history. I like my Twilight Sparkle.
The funny part is that while Pinkie's younger sisters are, indeed, loveable, absolutely nopony would consider them seductresses.
5397512
Ironically, when it comes to his own potential for good, Discord underestimates himself. Celestia has a higher opinion of him, despite the fact that she's the one he most betrayed.. Luna just feels too much pain about their shared past to let herself hope that he'll really reform. At this point in their lives, anyway.
5397984
Luna has a very intellectual and artistic side. Also, she likes to bash monsters. She's emphasizing her intellectual and artistic side because she's noticed that Twilight really likes it. This story is not mostly about Twi/Luna, but this is definitely meant to be an element of the tale.
Twilight thinks that no one except maybe Luna notices that she likes Luna back. Actually, every one of her friends does. Twilight can be clueless that way.
5397941
Thank you. I tried really hard to make the Paradise Estate and Crystal Empire of over 2500 years ago come alive as settings. I'm glad I seem to have succeeded.